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N Srinivasan's ‘chauvinist’ comments resurface after India's World Cup glory: ‘Wouldn't let women's cricket happen'
Former Indian captain Diana Edulji alleged in 2017 that N Srinivasan claimed he didn't care about women's cricket – quotes that have since resurfaced.
52 years since the first Women’s ODI World Cup – one India didn’t qualify for, given the country didn’t have a women’s team at that point in time – the women in blue have finally brought glory home. It is only fitting that the number 52 appears again, referring to the margin of victory as India beat South Africa at the DY Patil Stadium to end their long wait.
The significance of the victory is impossible to downplay, not just for the women who were on the field in the winning moment, not just for the thousands of girls and cricketers of tomorrow who will have gained new heroes from the final, but also for the unsung heroes of India’s cricketing past who all put one foot in front of the other to get to this point.
This was something the players recognised as they shared their triumph with Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, two icons of Indian cricket in the 21st century, having lifted the trophy in the first World Cup since their retirement. However, the Indian women’s cricket battle goes much further back, and contains stories of players having to fight against not just other teams, but also forces within the male-dominated landscape of Indian cricket that didn’t wish them well.
‘Always been a BCCI basher…’
India’s success in the World Cup cannot be considered without the context behind it, good and bad, and fans were no doubt reminded of how far the game has come. Former Indian captain Diana Edulji, who led the team from 1978 to 1993, never shied away from taking on the powers that be in cricket, and calling them out for misogynistic practices even to the modern day.
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“I’ve always been a BCCI basher, right from the day women’s cricket came into the BCCI fold in 2006,” Edulji had said at an Indian Express event in 2017, following India’s heartbreaking loss in that year’s ODI World Cup final.
“BCCI is a very male chauvinist organisation. They never wanted women to dictate terms or get into this thing. I was very vocal from the start of my playing days. Even now, I would still say that it is not yet well accepted within BCCI that women’s cricket is doing well,” Edulji had expressed.
‘He hates women’s cricket…'
The former Indian captain would also be nominated by the Supreme Court to the Committee of Administrators for the BCCI, a role in which she would aim to effect an active top-down change in the way women’s cricket is perceived in the country. This included fighting against figures such as former BCCI president N Srinivasan, who she claimed had said straightforwardly to her face that women’s cricket didn’t even make a mark on his agenda.
“It is very difficult for them to accept the fact that this team has done very well,” Edulji had explained. “When Mr Srinivasan became president, I would like to say that I went to congratulate him at the Wankhede Stadium (after the men’s team’s 2011 World Cup win). He said, ‘If I had my way, I wouldn’t let women’s cricket happen’. He hates women’s cricket.”
Eight years on from Edulji revealing those comments by Srinivasan, and highlighting the uphill battle women’s cricket has faced, things have improved with more attention on the sport, thanks to initiatives such as the Women’s Premier League. However, things are far from perfect in a shifting landscape, and this World Cup victory is only the latest achievement in a movement that must continue at all levels of Indian sport.
